Music with ethnic and exotic instrumental and/or vocal music sounds

Hey guys,

I’m new here.

First of all, since I usually listen to film music that often uses ethnic and exotic instrumental and/or vocal music sounds on the computer, can you name any or some example of film and/or TV music scores that often uses ethnic and exotic instrumental and/or vocal music sounds or so in them?

Just wondering.

Check out Passion of the Christ.

Akira (Geinoh Yamashirogumi), The Wind and the Lion (Goldsmith), and The Gospel of John (Jeff Danna).

Musics like that can be found mostly in Asiatics compositions like Naruto Ost(sadness and sorrow it’s good.), Le portrait from petit cossette, RomeoXJuliet, InuYasha, Rurouni Kenshin and Death Note.
Joe Hisaishi had amazing instrumental songs.
Besides there are Angels and Demons OST, Amelie Poulan, Goodbye Lenin, 5 centimeters per second, The Goodfather, Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence and from Final Fantasy Games.
You may like too Gregorian Songs like Lascia Ch’io Pianga from Handel
Hope that help
sorry for my bad english

———- Post added at 12:18 PM ———- Previous post was at 12:17 PM ———-

and Narnia, I forget about them

The music for Xena, the warrior princess by Joseph LoDuca are very good for that. Seasons 3 & 4 are for me the best of among these. And believe me, I use to dislike TV series music.

zimmer: millennium
zimmer: rain man
small: mountains of the moon
shorter: district 9
shore: the cell

and yeah: passion is really good

Lisa Gerrard (who worked with Hans Zimmer on Gladiator) has released a number of soundtracks with ancient instrumentation, duduks and the like, that you might want to check out. The Insider’s a particularly good one – very evocative and full of deep, sad emotion.

Some of Bear McCreary’s Galactica stuff has a lot of ethnic instrumentation mixed in with all sorts of other influences – he’s at his most adventurous on those but if that’s what you’re into I’d avoid his more generic TV soundtracks (although they’re marvellous in their own way too).

Thomas Newman’s score for Towelhead has some great, offbeat (not literally) use of ethnic instrumentation…

People have already mentioned Peter Gabriel’s Passion which you must check out if you never had and I’d also recommend his soundtracks for Rabbit Proof Fence and Birdy.

The Promise, which just finished airing on BBC1 in the UK was full of exactly the kind of music you describe – music by Debbie Wiseman – think this is released on CD in a couple of days time.

Might not be quite what you’re after, but I’d check out Gustavo Santaolalla too. His soundtracks for Diarios De Motocicleta, Amores Perros and Babel might give you a similar thrill.

I’m sure there are others – if I think of any I’ll list them here.

Don’t forget Christopher Tin. All Civilization games have terrific soundtrack. On top of that, his solo album "Calling all Dawn" won a Grammy in "Best Classical Crossover," and the single Baba Yetu won “Best Instrumental Arrange Accompanying Vocalist(s)"

Ethnic/exotic can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. For instance, would Celtic music fall into your criteria? I gather from what you and others have said that you’re looking for stuff with, for lack of a better term, a "third world" kind of sound. Anyway, people have already made some great suggestions like Lisa Gerrard and Bear McCreary, here are some more:
James Newton Howard "Blood Diamond"
Philip Glass "Koyaanisqatsi", "Powaqqatsi" and "Naqoyqatsi"
Craig Armstrong "The Quiet American"
Bruno Calais "The Secret of Kells"
Jerry Goldsmith "The Ghost and the Darkness"
Tan Dun "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", "Hero"
Shigeru Umebayashi "Curse of the Golden Flower", "House of Flying Daggers"
Keiichi Suzuki "Zatoichi"
The Track Team "Avatar- The Last Airbender"
Kuniaki Haishima "Neo Ranga"
anything by Yuki Kajiura
Paul Pe�a and Kongar-ol Ondar "Genghis Blues"
and though they’re not soundtracks, you might still want to look into the works of Afro Celt Soundsystem, E.S. Posthumus, Kodo, and Juno Reactor, as well as Lisa Gerrard’s old group Dead Can Dance.

Try Medicine Man by Jerry Goldsmith …it is awesome

The fabulous score for the movie 8MM. (with N Cage) fits perfectly in your description